The Queen's Charge
by Wainbow Wabbit Warrior
Summary: Please review! Finally,a training academy fo female pages have been set up. Are there problems there as like in the palace? Please read and review!! ^_^


This is my story. I love Tamora Pierce's books. and so I'm writing this. But it is not really related except that it's based in Tortall. Stares hopefully.  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the identifiable characters like Daine and Keladry and Alanna, etc.  
  
But I do own Jodie and any of the other girls in the academy. ( This is actually a allegory/satire about the political situation my in class. Guess what. Im Jodie.)  
  
Moreover, Jodie and Foster was a total coincidence, not trying to make a statement about Jodie Foster.  
  
Daine: Nobody owns me but Numai.(blushes furiously)  
  
Sigh.  
  
  
  
Chapter 1: The start of a warrior  
  
She was sweating profusely, tiny beads of perspiration formed on her head. She tried to concentrate and block the blows that were coming at her, but she could not seem to be able to gain the upper hand. The opponent was a larger girl who smirked as she confidently rained blows on Jodie. Jodie had practiced hard, but she had the disadvantage of being smaller. The opponent had a good defence and was very confident as she felt she would win over the small sized Jodie. Jodie persevered as she cleared her mind and looked for loopholes in the way the girl was attacking her.  
  
Suddenly, the girl stopped for a split second as her arms were getting tired from repeatedly raining blows on Jodie, Jodie saw the opportunity, so she seized the chance to duck under and slash sideways with the training staff. The girl did not have enough time to recover from the shock and Jodie continued with a side kick which the hit the girl squarely on her kneepad, causing her to fall over.  
  
Jodie got up from her crouching position when she heard the training master say that the fight was over. The other girl picked herself up and brushed the dust off her clothes, she flicked her hair as she scowled at Jodie. The training master came over and complimented the other girl on her excellent staff work, the girl turned around and smirked at Jodie. Her smile vanished when the training master turned to Jodie and said that she was the most like Alanna in being small, but being able to persevere and to be able to think quickly when an opportunity presented itself. Jodie beamed at the comment as she personally felt that Lady Alanna was the best warrior she had seen.  
  
Jodie learned that the girl's name was Gracia of Goldenpeak, she had heard of Gracia before, because Gracia was very famous for being such a "talented young lady, with such good manners" she had heard this over and over again when her mother nagged at her for being too outspoken. She wondered why Gracia had applied to the academy if she really was such a prim and proper lady. Jodie saw Gracia walk over to a girl who she recognized as Charmaine of Lancomb, Charmaine whispered into Gracia's ear and they both cast a poisonous look at her and strode off.  
  
She jumped as a tap on her shoulder broke her out of her thought. She spun around as she saw a pleasant looking face looking at her. The girl introduced herself as Dawn Of Espie. Dawn was the only child of Lord Edward of Espie and thus she felt suffocated by all the attention and she wanted to actually do something with her own life. Dawn congratulated Jodie on her victory and confided that she also hoped that she could get into the academy. Jodie smiled, as she knew that she had made a new friend.  
  
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She was very nervous and could not sit still, the suspense was too much for her to bear. Her mother nagged at her as she paced nervously around the room. Jodie of Garister was waiting for the results to come out. She had applied for a place in the exclusive training academy for female pages and had recently gone for the qualifying exam. She disliked the exam as she had to actually fight with a stranger she didn't know and she had only won because of a small stroke of luck. Jodie hoped that they would not penalise her for that.  
  
The academy was a big affair for her because it was where all the young ladies who wanted to be Knights went. The academy was also new, so she was actually taking a chance in applying for a place.  
  
Both Alanna of Pirate's Swoop and Olau, the Kings champion and Keladry of Mindelan had started the academy; they had both felt that females deserved a place to train as Knights. They felt that by starting a academy, the females would be able to get the respect they needed. This was of course with the permission of Thayet, her majesty, Queen of Tortall. Queen Thayet herself had truly believed in a female being able to protect herself, so after the two female Knights had collaborated and designed the academy, they presented the idea to the King Jonathon who was easily swayed over his queen's arguments.  
  
Jodie of Garister idolised these three courageous women, they were all that she wanted to be. She worked hard to learn how to fight in her spare time and since she was a little kid, had wanted to go to the palace to train as a female Knight. It was always her dream to be a female warrior. Now she was waiting for the letter, which would tell her whether the next part of her life would be spent away from home. Whether she would live in the place where she would meet other girls of her age who had similar dreams of helping others as knights like her.  
  
She waited till evening but still there was no news, despondently, she trudged back to her room and sat on her bed. She looked sadly out of the window and watched the swirling colours in the sky. The sun had begun to lower and it cast a orange glow on the country side around the castle that they lived in. To Jodie of Garister, it might as well have symbolised the sunset on her ambitions and career as a female warrior.  
  
Jodie sat down, thinking back on the start of her currently growing ambition - what had inspired her, given her the thirst, the hunger to be a female warrior? It was due, she supposed, to what her relatives had told her when she was young, and still being pushed around by her brother, Yammis. She had two older brothers, one whom which she was quite close with, and one who bullied her. Yammis felt it amusing to watch her pull away and struggle to free herself, trembling all the time when he held her near a torch. The heat and the flickering light stayed in her mind and almost every night, she dreamt of it.  
  
She heard the thudding of hooves outside the castle, the drawbridge lowered. Could something have happened to her father? She ran to the door and opened it, running worriedly down the corridor. She wasn't looking where she was going, so when she collided with someone, she hastily apologised. Shock hit her face, the messenger held a letter with an official seal. It was the results that would tell whether she passed the exam or not.  
  
She gave the messenger a coin and he quickly rushed back out to his horse, he had many more letters to deliver. She nervously walked back to her room. Holding her breath, her hands trembled as she slowly broke the seal....  
  
Yay! My friend dawn the espeon told me to use cliffhangers, so here's one.  
  
Please review. 


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